Author: Edward Seid
Date: 04:37:45 07/02/01
(cross posted on rgcc and Winboard forum) I wish all chess software programmers and companies would get together and agree on a standard format for opening books. In a perfect world, one should be able to build a book for Program X, customize it to the hilt, and be able to use that same book in Fritz, Rebel, Shredder, Crafty, (insert favorite engine here) without having to convert between bin, mvs, bk, tbk, obk, cgs, fbk, and bok formats. There already exist functions within popular programs such as Chessbase 8, Chess Assistant 6 and Bookup 2000 Professional that could be adapted to such tasks as book building and refinement. Maybe companies and programmers view the existence of an open and universal standard as infringement on what is currently proprietary. My feeling is that a portable opening database (POD) format would serve to increase the popularity of all playing programs, much like the PGN standard has increase the popularity of chess databases. Even with the existence of the POD format, there is still room for originality in the form of book learning. Within the POD format specification, there should be fields for win-loss-draw records, score, and frequency. A programmer is given free license to design a proper algorithm using these fields as inputs to best optimize the learning function of his/her program. I do hope that this idea strikes a chord with all chess programmers and an initiative will be taken to make the POD format a reality. These are my thoughts at 1:30 AM, Hawaii time. Your comments are welcome. ed seid proud legal owner of chessbase, chess assistant, bookup, rebel, fritz, and chessmaster
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